Clinical Save Awards Honor First Responders

February 6, 2014 - St. Louis, MO –On June 6, first responders were called to the scene of an accident involving a truck and a semi in Cobden, Illinois. Inside the truck were two teenage brothers, the driver 17, the passenger 13. Christian Godinez had already died from his injuries. Emergency crews were working to save 13-year-old Noah.

As firefighters removed him from the vehicle, he went into respiratory arrest. They were able to ventilate and load him into the ambulance, where they provided enough fluids to manage his blood pressure while they rushed him to the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Emergency Department.

He required immediate surgery and three months of intensive neuro-rehabilitation, but Noah was able to go home on September 12, 2013.

According to his mom, Tracey Godinez, “Noah is doing better every day.”

“If it weren’t for the life-saving efforts of those who first cared for Noah, his parents would have lost two sons that day,” says Rich Dandridge, EMS Coordinator at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

On Friday, February 7, Noah and his family will meet those first responders as part of the 3rd Annual EMS Conference and Critical Save Awards. The awards will recognize the extraordinary efforts of five teams of first responders, and reunite several of them with the children they saved. The first responders are from ARCH – Air Medical Service, Florissant Valley Fire Protection District, Air Evac Lifeteam, and the St. Louis Fire Department Bureau of EMS.